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"Science fiction is the very literature of change. In fact, it is the only such literature we have."
- Frederik Pohl

Spherical Display  
  An arbitrarily large display that is a perfect sphere.  

A great way to view the universe.

You stuck your head through and there you were; one bodiless head sticking through protruding into this dimly lit spherical space with lots of other bodiless heads – only a minority of them in any sense human.

Usually a spherical display hovered in the centre of the space. Right now the display was showing some detail of the general battle space...

Technovelgy from Surface Detail, by Iain M Banks.
Published by Orbit in 2010
Additional resources -

The same technovelgy is mentioned much earlier, in Consider Phlebas:

"In one apartment they saw rich wooden furniture, a holosphere lying broken in a corner and a glass-sided water tank the size of a room..."

Compare to the computer globe from Cold Front (1946) by Hal Clement, the visiglobe from Agent of Vega (1949) by James Schmitz and the weather room from The Weather Man (1961) by Theodore L Thomas.

See also the miniature universe from Fessenden's Worlds by Edmond Hamilton, published by Weird Tales in 1937.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Surface Detail
  More Ideas and Technology by Iain M Banks
  Tech news articles related to Surface Detail
  Tech news articles related to works by Iain M Banks

Spherical Display-related news articles:
  - I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display

Articles related to Display
Did Frank Herbert Predict Bistable Displays Like E-Ink?
I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display
Outdoor Video Screens Can Be Arbitrarily Large
iPhone Air Fulfils Jobs' Promise From 2007 - A Giant Screen!

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Science Fiction in the News

'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'

Epirus High-Power Microwave Defeats Drones
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'

Cloud Of Space Rubbish From China's Long March Rocket
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'

Biomimetic Tendons From Rochu Robotics
'... the curious parallelism to animal motions.'

Living Human Neuron Biological Compute Rack
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'

Martha Stewart Approves Ojai 'Living Room On Wheels'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'

ESA's Draco To Study Heat Of Reentry
'...a synthetic which air-friction would erode.'

Buy A Galaxy? Maybe Start Smaller
'The sky is the limit' just got higher.

The United States Space Academy Is Official
'Is our orbit to Space Academy clear?'

Is There A Global Problem With Who Is Having Children?
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'

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